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Redeem Orlando

The religious traditions offer solace
in
the face of tragedy and provide ways for us to exercise a kind of
healthy denial in order to move on with our lives. Especially in the
face of unnecessary, meaningless death and suffering, we need to
believe those we’ve loved and lost are in some supernatural way still
united with us, watching us, grieving with us, perhaps calling to us to
raise our eyes beyond the immediate tragedy and make the world a better
place because of our losing them.

The spiritual message beyond and including the religious visions of
afterlife or reincarnation seems to be that whatever happens in the
supernatural realms, we are all parts of something bigger than
ourselves and all always united with one another as creations of the
Earth as the planet moves through space, time and evolution. We are all
in some way One Consciousness.

Perhaps we redeem the tragedy in Orlando by understanding the lost not
as victims, but as martyrs and witnesses for a better tomorrow in which
such things never happen. The events in Orlando, Florida and around the
country dramatize how the world understands LGBTQ people. The hatred
shown in the violence reveals the depth of homophobia,
even—especially—in the perpetrator.

The LGBTQ community seems to bear the suffering of the world. We are
the sufferers who wake the others up to what is happening, by our
cries, our pleas, our demands and our good example. It has been AIDS
and discrimination and bullying and anti-gay violence that have defined
us as heroes and victors, caregivers and lovers in a world that needs
more love.

This event will change things. It must wake the public to the need, not
just for tolerance, but for embrace, acceptance and celebration of
difference.

In spiritual terms, we are all parts of God learning to live with one
another in peace and love for the joy and betterment of all. Those who
died in Orlando—and those who are injured, suffering and aggrieved—have
not been lost or suffered in vain if human consciousness and our
compassion for one another expands from this and transcends the
senselessness of it all to teach us to love more and let go of anger,
hate and fear.

Toby Johnson, PhDis
author of nine books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of
his
teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and
religious problems, four gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual
issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's
spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality and editor
of a collection of "myths" of gay men's consciousness.

Johnson's book
GAY
SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of
Human Consciousness won a Lambda Literary Award in 2000.

His GAY
PERSPECTIVE: Things Our [Homo]sexuality Tells Us about the Nature
of God and the Universe was nominated for a Lammy in 2003. They
remain
in
print.

FINDING
YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth
of the Great Secret III tells the story of Johnson's learning the
real nature of religion and myth and discovering the spiritual
qualities of gay male consciousness.